Well, Saturday was a bit more eventful in a very frightening way on Saturday April 18th. The Remembrance weekend activities, blended with the Corps Change of Command, and the capper was the Franklin Era Debut at the Spring Game.
The Tech Spring Game made national headlines, but the reason was definitely not one that the university or the athletic department wanted. The show for the game was to be game quality, with pyrotechnics, a full military march on by the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets as they changed command, and our usual crew of precision parachute jumpers to land on the field. The show went smoothly, right up until the lines formed to make the fan corridor for the team to run on to the field. Nature really wasn’t cooperating, however, and the wind gusts kicked up -like they had been all day- as the parachutists neared the stadium bowl.
The first jumper ended up coming in from over the South stands, with the wind gusts, lost control – or from the pictures allowed his parachute to lose any residual lift on landing (the general idea is to land against the wind to minimize the forward speed). He ended up taking a tumble going the wrong way and worked to avoid being dragged across the field by his parachute. He was safe, though, and recovered his equipment.
The second jumper was towing the Hokie Bird flag, and as he approached the North rim of the stadium, an overpowering gust of wind caught the flag and his parachute. He managed to make a right-hand turn, even with the flag dragging, and landed in either the parking lot or practice field behind the North side of the stadium.
That was disappointing for the show, but what happened next, to the jumper with the large American flag was almost a tragic accident. This jumper made it to about 100 or so feet over the jumbotron in the North End Zone and another gust of wind caught the flag, stalled his forward momentum – which caused the parachute to drop much faster – and then he failed to clear the scoreboard. This is where the miracle occurred, and no one is saying much about that, because it was, indeed, a miracle. That sign is 3-4 stories high, and a fall from that height to the asphalt below would probably have been fatal. By some amazing luck, divine hand, fortunate accident… whatever it was, the jumper’s parachute snagged on the C and the H of the Virginia Tech lighted sign that he had just bodily smashed into and dropped past. He was caught up on the sign, but the parachute was slipping and wouldn’t hold for long.
The fire crew and the stadium maintenance/operations crew went up into the jumbotron, located the right panels to open, and secured the hung-up parachutist before anything else could tear away. Within a half-an-hour or so, the Blacksburg Fire Department positioned their tallest bucket ladder under the jumper and pulled him to safety. The parachute remained hung up on the scoreboard for the remainder of the game, which was played in full.
Gobbler Country sends prayers of thanks out for the safety of the parachutist, and the quick and capable response of the Blacksburg Fire Department and the Stadium Operators.
Needless to say, with 12-minute quarters, and very limited clock gimmickry, the game was essentially delayed by an entire half.
(Or at least the first half. Personal Note, I am still rehabbing a full knee replacement and am on doctor’s orders to not push my still weaker than normal legs too far so in order to walk out to transportation, I had to limit game coverage. The near tragic parachuting accident that delayed the game by an entire half certainly didn’t help.)
The rules for the game were the usual, setting up high school quarters at 12 minutes, and putting orange no contact jerseys on the quarterbacks. The timing rules for the 2nd half were also adjusted to speed play. There were no kickoffs, and all kicking team activities, punting and place kicking for points, were done without whole squad participation. PATs and field goals were strictly the long snapper, holder, and kicker setups.
The squad mix wasn’t quite even between the maroon and white squads, but for the most part the interior positions for the first half were shaded toward the potential starters wearing maroon. New quarterback, Penn State transfer redshirt sophomore Ethan Grunkemeyer suited up for Maroon along with returning wide receivers Ayden Greene and Takye Heath with Duke transfer Que’Sean Brown. The probable starting running back was Redshirt Freshman Jeffrey Overton, Jr.
The remainder of the maroon squad was mixed in with various levels of the depth chart, with some ones, twos, and threes mixed in on each squad. The major separation seemed to be between the skill talents to get their opportunities on one squad or the other.
The white squad’s skill players were more of a mixed bag of 2s and 3s on the depth chart. Again, though, both the lines and defensive backfields were mixed between 1s, 2s, and 3s. The important things to note about the skill positions were that the quarterbacks, though probable 2 and 3 in the depth chart were also very active on the field and split snaps for the entire quarter.
— Virginia Tech Football (@HokiesFB) April 17, 2026
Bryan has already gone through the details of the game in his summary; my job was to give you an impression of what I saw on the field and how it looked like it was running. So, I will split this by positions and personnel regardless of shirt.
Ethan Grunkemeyer (we had a star QB named Druckenmiller, so why not?) started and played the entire quarter for the Maroon Squad. Of a note of concern was the knee brace on his left knee, but those are increasingly common on many players. What it did say was that there weren’t going to be a ton of called runs for the QB for this one. If he ran it was a scramble or an experiment of some kind. Of course, there was no more than two-hand touch contact allowed so anything heavy was stopped by the refs pretty quickly. In general, we’ll not that the coaches were on the field when the White Squad was up, but less conspicuous for the Maroon Squad. Also noted was the wrist coach on each of the quarterbacks, so it looks like Coach Franklin has made some systematic changes to the way the offense is called from the sideline. If Jim Druckenmiller was eventually just “Druck” how long will it be before Ethan is “Grunk”? Okay, all silliness aside, the impressions and observations on EG were overall really good.
He looks confident behind the center, and looks like he’s seeing the field pre-snap, to make audible reads. What really has changed is the feel after the snap. Grunkemeyer was smooth with either his hand-offs, play fakes, or actual conversion to passing. He moved well in the pocket and had the footwork confidence to keep his eyes downfield. There were even several “look off” passes that he executed well. His post-snap downfield reads were good, and even with the one pick-off that he tossed, it was balanced with a nice rollout for a touchdown throw to Que’Sean Brown for the first score of the game.
Short of some disaster, or a Spring to Summer breakdown, Grunkemeyer is the odds-on favorite to be the starter in September, though with the first game being VMI, we might see another number show up on the field behind center for some reps.
Bryce Baker (The very Doug Flutie #22) redshirt Freshman transfer from UNC, and redshirt Freshman Kelden Ryan both took snaps in the first half. Neither quarterback made atrocious mistakes in the half they just didn’t really get the ball moving. Baker did get the bulk of the first half white squad snaps and operated with a more athletic approach than Grunkemeyer on the other side. Both players are dual threats and can pull the ball down and run, so expect some play calling style differences if they get into games this season. Ryan’s touchdown definitely impressed the media crowd, and everyone from both squads made the majority of their passes.
And that was the general observation on the offense for the quarterbacks. There was more passing at all three levels for this one. That may or may not be indicative of a trend but as noted by Bryan in his summary, the real story of the game was the targeting of tight ends more often. Both squads were salted with starters so that might be some encouraging news for a change. Tech has been noted over the past decade for wasting solid Tight End talent as extra Tackles.